PEACE RESEARCH
THEORY AND PRACTICE
PETER WALLENSTEEN
ROUTLEDGE 2011
Back cover
This is a book by one of Europe’s leading peace researchers. It spans a distinguished career of theory, empirical research and also practice, thus showing how social scientists can inform policy, and inspire all those who hope to reduce violence in this world.
Professor Bruce Russett, Yale University, USA
Comprising essays by Peter Wallensteen, this book presents an overview of the thematic development of peace research, which has become one of the most dynamic and innovative areas of war and conflict studies.
Peace research began in the 1950s, when centers were formed in the USA and Europe, and today there are research institutes and departments on every continent, with teaching and research programmes in most countries, and peace researchers contribute to the development of international studies, development research and security analysis. Professor Wallensteen has been a witness to much of this since forming the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University in the late 1960s, and brings together thirteen of his key articles and five new essays in one volume.
This book presents articles on such key issues in peace research as the causes of war, conflict data, conflict diplomacy, non violent sanctions and third-party diplomacy. In this way, it demonstrates how basic research can be conducted in fields often seen as ‘unresearchable’ and ‘too complicated to deal with’. This volume shows that it is a matter of developing definitions, creating valid measures and finding ways of collecting information, recognizing that innovations of this kind require supportive research environments. Furthermore, the results are useful not only for the growth of research activity itself, but for finding ways of dealing with actual conflicts, thus, attention is also paid here to conflict prevention, peace agreements, sanctions and third-party activity for preventing and ending armed conflict, and building a lasting post-was peace.
This book will be of great interest to all students of peace studies, conflict resolution, war and conflict studies, development studies and international relations/security studies in general.
About the author
Peter Wallensteen holds the Dag Hammarskjöld Chair of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University, Sweden, and is the Richard G. Starmann Sr. Professor of Peace Studies at the Kroc Institute, University of Notre Dame, USA. He leads the Uppsala Conflict Data Program and a program on sanctions. He is author of many papers and articles, as well as several books, including Understanding Conflict Resolution (3rd edn, 2011), a leading textbook.
Preface
This book reflects the journey of one peace researcher by presenting themes and issues of significance in peace research. It reproduces thirteen articles and book chapters, some updated through 2010, as well as five new essays adding context and a contemporary perspective. In short, it attempts to portray a researcher’s intellectual evolution without being a personal story.
This book emphasizes the importance of the work environment – a milieu conducive to advances in scholarly study. Thus, one section of this volume focuses on the creation of the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University and the role of its education and training programs while another section presents the emergence of the Uppsala Conflict data Program (UCDP) – now a world-leading provider of conflict data.
Causes of war and efforts to peaceful conflict resolution are central to peace research – and UCDP – hence, these issues take two sections of this volume.
In addition, a section demonstrates ways in which peace research can relate to international policymaking, for instance through sanctions research (the so-called SPITS project). A final section shows the utility of what might be called applied peace research and direct action by peace researchers in the form of mediation and academic diplomacy.
Research is about not only individual ideas and achievements but also creative cooperation. Peace research at Uppsala University clearly demonstrates this. The department would not be where it stands today without contributions by its faculty and staff: …
PART I: MAKING PEACE RESEARCHABLE
Chapter 1: Making peace researchable by Peter Wallensteen
Chapter 2: The Uppsala code of ethics for scientists by Bengt Gustafsson, Lars Rydén, Gunnar Tibell and Peter Wallensteen
Ethical problems in research
What can we do to stop the armament race and promote peace? In particular, what can we scientists do? The obvious risk of nuclear disaster makes it necessary for any scientists to scrutinize his/her own resources, and to try new unconventional ways to contribute to global disarmament and a reasonable future. One of these resources is the scientist’s own personal appreciation of right and wrong, that is, our ethics. In the following we shall describe an attempt to mobilize this resource in order to affect the choice of research field and application of research.
At Uppsala University a small group of scientists has met regularly since 1981 to penetrate the ethical problems of research. The variety of disciplines represented (natural sciences, medicine, social sciences, technology, law, theology) has greatly contributed to making the meetings fruitful. From an early stage, the seminar has attempted to formulate a code of ethics for scientists. A first proposal for such a code was circulated in late 1982 and, based on the debate that followed, the seminar published a final version of the code in early 1984 (see Box 2.1).
Box 2.1 Code of ethics for scientists
Scientific research is an indispensable activity of great significance to mankind – for our description and understanding of the world, our material conditions, social life, and welfare. Research can contribute to solving the great problems facing humanity, such as the threat of nuclear war, damage to the environment, and the uneven distribution of the earth’s resources. In addition, scientific research is justified and valuable as a pure quest for knowledge, and it should be pursued in a free exchange of methods and findings. Yet research can also, both directly and indirectly, aggravate the problems of mankind.
This code of ethics for scientists has been formulated as a response to a concern about the applications and consequences of scientific research. In particular it appears that the potential hazards deriving from modern technological warfare are so overwhelming that it is doubtful whether it is ethically defensible for scientists to lend any support to weapons development.
The code is intended for the individual scientist; it is primarily he or she who shall assess the consequences of his/her own research. Such an assessment is always difficult to make, and may not infrequently be impossible. Scientists do not as a rule have control over either research results or their application, or even in many cases over the planning of their work. Nevertheless this must not prevent the individual scientist from making a sincere attempt to continually judge the possible consequences of his/her research, to make these judgements known, and to refrain from such research as he/she deems to be unethical.
In this connection the following should particularly be considered:
- Research shall be so directed that its applications and other consequences do not cause significant ecological damage.
- Research shall be so directed that its consequences do not render it more difficult for present and future generations to lead a secure existence. Scientific efforts shall therefore not aim at applications or skills for use in war or oppression. Nor shall research be so directed that its consequences conflict with basic human rights as expressed in international agreements on civic, political, economic, social and cultural rights.
- The scientist has a special responsibility to assess carefully the consequences of his/her research, and to make them public.
- Scientists who form the judgement that the research which they are conducting or participating in is in conflict with this code, shall discontinue such research, and publicly state the reasons for their judgement. Such judgements shall take into consideration both the probability and the gravity of the negative consequences.
It is of urgent importance that the scientific community support colleagues who find themselves forced to discontinue their research for the reasons given in this code.
N.B. The code consists of both the introductory text and the four points. We shall be grateful if, in any publication, the four points are not separated from the context.
Uppsalal, Sweden (January 1984)
The responsibility of scientists
Individual responsibility
Ecology and war
Negative or positive code?
Duty to inform
Notes
PART II: KNOWING WAR – UNDERSTANDING HISTORY
Chapter 3: War in peace research by Peter Wallensteen
Chapter 4: Four models of major power politics: Geopolitik, Realpolitik, Idealpolitik and Kapitalpolitik by Peter Wallensteen
Chapter 5: Major powers, confrontation and war, 1816-1976 by Peter Wallensteen
Chapter 6: Universalism versus particularism: on the limits of major power order by Peter Wallensteen
Chapter 7: Global governance in a new age: the UN between P1, G2, and a new global society by Peter Wallensteen
PART III: TOWARDS CONFLICT RESOLUTION ANALYSIS
Chapter 8: Widening the researchable: conflict, resolution and prevention by Peter Wallensteen
Chapter 9: The Uppsala Conflict Data Program, 1978-2010: the story, the rationale and the programme by Peter Wallensteen
Chapter 10: Conflict prevention: methodology for knowing the unknown by Peter Wallensteen with Frida Möller
Chapter 11: Armed conflict and peace agreements by Peter Wallensteen
Chapter 12: Dag Hammarskjöld and the psychology of diplomacy by Peter Wallensteen with Lotta Harbom and Stina Högbladh
PART IV: SANCTIONS AND PEACE RESEARCH
Chapter 13: Sanctions and peace research by Peter Wallensteen
Chapter 14: A century of economic sanctions: a field revisited by Peter Wallensteen
Chapter 15: Sanctions and peacebuilding: lessons from Africa by Peter Wallensteen
PART V: ACADEMICS IN PEACEMAKING
Chapter 16: Academics in peacemaking by Peter Wallensteen
Chapter 17: The strengths and limits of academic diplomacy: the case of Bougainville by Peter Wallensteen
Chapter 18: An experiment in academic diplomacy: the Middle East seminar 1990 by Peter Wallensteen